CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Vote-counting under way after elections

BANGUI, 14 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - Votes were being counted on Monday in the Central African Republic (CAR), the day after presidential and parliamentary elections marked by delays in many polling stations.

The country's electoral body, the Mixed Independent Electoral Commission (CEMI), has 15 days to announce the results of the polls.

On Sunday, several voting centres opened hours behind schedule in the capital, Bangui. Illiterate voters had to be helped, not least to differentiate the presidential from the parliamentary ballots.

Voting in several districts was delayed due to lack of ballot papers. Delays ranged from half an hour in Bangui's 8th District, to five hours in the 5th District, the capital’s most populated area. In the 6th District, some voters had to wait for eight hours, despite arriving at 5 a.m. to cast their votes.

"I have been queuing for six hours and now they tell me I can't vote because my voter's card does not have number. I'm not the one who produced the card," Leila Abdaraman, 36, told IRIN.

Delays were also observed in provincial towns such as Berbérati, in Mambere Kadei Province.

"These problems are due to laxity of some persons responsible - of the local electoral committees or some supervisors," Remi Sakanga, CEMI's spokesman, said.

Radio Centrafrique, a state-owned radio station, carried reports on Monday that angry voters had destroyed electoral material in the CAR embassy in Paris, France. As a result, CEMI's chairman, Jean Wilibiro-Sacko, announced on national radio on Monday that the vote in Paris would be cancelled. However, those in the French cities of Lyon and Bordeaux were unaffected.

He also said that 25 people had been arrested in Bangui after they were found in possession of 500 ballot papers.

Two days before the end of the electoral campaign, the opposition group Union des forces de vives de la nation (UFVN) accused a coalition of businessmen and parties supporting President François Bozize of fraud. At a meeting at Stade Bonga-Bong, UFVN accused Convergence Kwa Na Kwa of buying voter cards in bulk. Bozize's supporters denied the accusation.

The election results will bring to an end the two-year transitional government installed by Bozize after he seized power from President Ange-Felix Patasse on 15 March 2003.

Eleven candidates stood for the presidency on Sunday, while 900 candidates vied for 105 parliamentary seats.

CEMI has 15 days to proclaim the results of this first ballot; no date has been announced for a second ballot should one be required.

[ENDS]